WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.340 We're addressing the question, as it says in the programme, how can the curriculum respond? 00:00:07.100 --> 00:00:15.420 But by way of introduction, though, I thought I'd mention briefly the work we do in Cambridge ESOL 00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:22.940 and my own particular interest in the measurable effects of different approaches to learning English around the world, 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:25.400 and so outside of this country. 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:42.540 In particular, I'm interested in the way that examinations of English language proficiency of the kind that we produce in Cambridge can positively support curriculum in school contexts and can in fact help improve teaching and support learning. 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:55.200 Now we in Cambridge currently assess the English proficiency of nearly 4 million learners a year in about 130 countries, so there's a lot of diversity there. 00:00:55.400 --> 00:01:08.380 And our approach supports, I think, the growing need around the world for high-quality qualifications in English as a basic requirement for many people for work and study. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:17.960 The learning of English in these contexts now forms part of the curriculum for children as young as five years old and upwards. 00:01:18.660 --> 00:01:22.980 And this is a very wide-scale trend from Chile to China, as it were. 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:37.216 And in many of these cases English is actually the third language that children have to cope with when they go to school In other words English is learnt in addition to their home language a local language or dialect 00:01:37.916 --> 00:01:43.076 and in addition to the official language of wider communication in their country or region. 00:01:43.496 --> 00:01:47.636 So think, for example, of China, where there's a huge amount of language learning going on. 00:01:48.316 --> 00:01:53.776 Clearly, a sink or swim approach, an immersion approach, is not appropriate in those contexts. 00:01:53.776 --> 00:02:00.816 And so the needs of these learners need to be very carefully scaffolded and backed up by a formal curriculum, 00:02:01.336 --> 00:02:04.316 covering the full range of language skills they need to obtain, 00:02:04.796 --> 00:02:09.076 and indeed optimised for their different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. 00:02:09.516 --> 00:02:11.836 And as I said, there's a great deal of diversity. 00:02:12.756 --> 00:02:19.016 Their individual progression across the proficiency levels must be carefully mapped over many years, 00:02:19.416 --> 00:02:25.036 through primary, middle and high schools, and then into further education in the world of work. 00:02:25.436 --> 00:02:30.175 And we have to bear in mind that learning languages is difficult, but very worthwhile, 00:02:30.875 --> 00:02:33.056 and it needs effort over a long period. 00:02:33.356 --> 00:02:40.436 On leaving formal education, it's important for other stakeholders in society, including parents and employers, 00:02:40.436 --> 00:02:45.556 is to know how well the learner is actually able to use language and for what real-world 00:02:45.556 --> 00:02:50.296 purposes. And certainly in the case of English language learning around the world, it's much 00:02:50.296 --> 00:03:05.151 more than a classroom activity and is generally taken to be a skill for life and indeed a lifelong endeavour so not something you do just from 5 to 16 My colleagues and I in Cambridge have carried out a growing 00:03:05.151 --> 00:03:10.931 number of long-term in-depth research projects, what we call impact studies, tracking the 00:03:10.931 --> 00:03:16.431 effects of educational reform on the outcomes of language learning, both within classrooms 00:03:16.431 --> 00:03:19.051 and in society more generally. 00:03:19.551 --> 00:03:22.851 And in particular, we've been concerned to ensure that our exams 00:03:22.851 --> 00:03:25.931 and the kind that we offer in different parts of the world 00:03:25.931 --> 00:03:29.251 are adapted in such a way that they have positive impact 00:03:29.251 --> 00:03:32.771 and do indeed lead to improving standards over time. 00:03:33.291 --> 00:03:36.651 And you can see this in our work, which is published on Washback, 00:03:36.651 --> 00:03:40.851 the word we heard earlier, Impact, and more recently, 00:03:40.991 --> 00:03:43.751 Action Research, working with teachers. 00:03:43.751 --> 00:04:05.651 My final observation before I hand over to my colleagues is that developing a plurilingual competence and a wide range of skills in several languages should indeed be taken as the norm and an accepted part of educational processes, as it is in fact in many parts of the world, as I just mentioned. 00:04:05.651 --> 00:04:12.311 This tends not to be the case, however, where English is the country's official language 00:04:12.311 --> 00:04:16.211 and the main language of education, as in this country. 00:04:16.211 --> 00:04:33.567 Here it seems to me there tends to be lower motivation to learn other languages and the benefits of sustaining plurilingualism are not actually widely recognised and supported by society as a whole And this becomes problematic when we start talking about language learning 00:04:34.347 --> 00:04:38.847 So that's just one perspective in this incredibly interesting area, 00:04:38.847 --> 00:04:44.327 and I'm sure my colleagues now will pick up some of these points in the rest of the afternoon's discussion. 00:04:45.147 --> 00:04:50.027 I'd like to start by introducing Dr. Frank Monaghan, 00:04:50.607 --> 00:04:56.147 He's a long-standing member of NALDIC and a Deputy Chair. 00:04:56.307 --> 00:05:01.027 NALDIC is the National Association for Language Development in the curriculum 00:05:01.027 --> 00:05:06.767 and is the subject association for English as an additional language in this country. 00:05:07.327 --> 00:05:11.327 Since 2003, Frank has been with the Open University, 00:05:12.367 --> 00:05:15.787 where he is currently a staff tutor in the London region 00:05:15.787 --> 00:05:20.007 and senior lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication. 00:05:20.607 --> 00:05:27.647 His research interests are in mathematics in multilingual classrooms, educational dialogue, 00:05:28.027 --> 00:05:33.207 and as a Liverpool football fan, issues of identity and creativity. 00:05:36.387 --> 00:05:37.347 Well, good afternoon. 00:05:38.427 --> 00:05:43.907 I'm never quite sure whether it's a good idea to come in when you've had the sweetener of the cake to cheer your mood, 00:05:43.907 --> 00:05:48.967 or whether you've now been dragged away from it and are very resentful of me being the first person to do that to you. 00:05:48.967 --> 00:05:51.667 So we have this cartoon here which I decided to begin with 00:05:51.667 --> 00:05:54.007 because I think it's very important to 00:05:54.108 --> 00:05:59.208 start with something which reminds us that we have a rather monolithic system in this country 00:05:59.208 --> 00:06:02.068 and a rather monolingual system in this country. 00:06:02.188 --> 00:06:06.568 And I'd like to challenge that, as Nick has just been talking about in there. 00:06:06.828 --> 00:06:10.248 And this is a good example of how we assess students at the moment 00:06:10.248 --> 00:06:14.088 in one particular way that is not necessarily suited to them at all. 00:06:15.148 --> 00:06:16.748 I'm just going to try and flick through. 00:06:16.828 --> 00:06:20.288 I only have five minutes, and so I need to be fairly rapid about it. 00:06:20.808 --> 00:06:22.668 This is just really to point out to you, 00:06:22.668 --> 00:06:27.568 These are the results of the PISA test on reading by immigrant status. 00:06:27.748 --> 00:06:29.168 And you won't be able to read it in any detail. 00:06:29.528 --> 00:06:36.368 Just to show you that the countries at the top end there are Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada. 00:06:36.768 --> 00:06:41.908 And we, the United Kingdom, are just around the OECD average on this. 00:06:42.348 --> 00:06:47.068 And there are striking differences between whether you're a first-generation immigrant, i.e. you were born here, 00:06:47.148 --> 00:06:49.348 or second-generation, your parents were born here. 00:06:50.008 --> 00:06:53.828 Constant Long has reminded us of the slipperiness of these categories, 00:06:54.028 --> 00:06:57.928 so always must be read with some concern. 00:06:58.268 --> 00:07:00.668 But nonetheless, on these measures, on these comparisons, 00:07:01.128 --> 00:07:04.688 we are not looking that great compared to others, 00:07:04.728 --> 00:07:08.588 although we are bouncing around the average for the OECD countries. 00:07:08.588 --> 00:07:14.328 But what I want to look at is then what is it that the successful people do, 00:07:14.388 --> 00:07:15.448 and just to focus on that. 00:07:15.448 --> 00:07:31.484 And what we have if we look at this is that they do have very systematic programs that are based around language that have very explicit standards very explicit requirements that are there relating to language EAL 00:07:31.944 --> 00:07:37.664 That the curriculum is determined at the local level, but that there are very key drivers given. 00:07:37.924 --> 00:07:41.184 There are good documents that include language development within them, 00:07:41.424 --> 00:07:46.144 that have very clear frameworks set out for language development, and that have progress benchmarks. 00:07:46.144 --> 00:07:56.304 They also have very high standards for the programme, so that students will acquire the language skills they need in the context of the mainstream curriculum. 00:07:56.804 --> 00:08:07.164 I think it's very important, what we've heard from everybody today, I think, has largely been this focus on the need to make sure that students experience the academic language of the subjects they are learning. 00:08:07.164 --> 00:08:12.244 because, as Paddy Walsh pointed out, that is the literacy, that is the knowledge. 00:08:12.484 --> 00:08:13.844 It only comes through those subjects. 00:08:14.264 --> 00:08:19.424 So that they are then integrated within that programme of the subject knowledge. 00:08:19.744 --> 00:08:20.824 So how do we do on that? 00:08:21.424 --> 00:08:23.564 Well, oh, sorry, there's also this time-intensive programme. 00:08:23.704 --> 00:08:29.064 So we've heard the dangers of the new proposal that students will only have three years 00:08:29.064 --> 00:08:34.484 in which to achieve this level of native-like ability. 00:08:34.484 --> 00:08:41.484 And we know that this is really not very likely from very substantial research going back over at least the last 30 years. 00:08:41.484 --> 00:08:44.484 So there are very great concerns about what we have. 00:08:44.484 --> 00:08:57.159 So on the first one we don do very well We don have systematic programs We do not have a curriculum that based on the local level We don include language In fact we rapidly moving away from having any kind of language 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:59.759 defined within our curriculum. 00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:02.259 If you look at curriculum documents historically, 00:09:02.739 --> 00:09:06.439 you can watch the progress of language gradually fade from view 00:09:06.439 --> 00:09:08.879 as they go through various iterations. 00:09:09.479 --> 00:09:12.399 There's only chance that the new ones may do similarly, I'm afraid. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:16.879 and we don't, I'm afraid, make any effort at all 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:19.499 to integrate things within the mainstream curriculum 00:09:19.499 --> 00:09:22.279 in terms of that because we don't have any AL curriculum. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:24.699 We don't seem to see that there is this progress, 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.599 as Philida pointed out, very different ways to English acquisition 00:09:28.599 --> 00:09:31.179 if you're a non-native speaker or a second language speaker. 00:09:31.219 --> 00:09:32.459 I don't like the term non-native speaker. 00:09:32.619 --> 00:09:33.839 It doesn't really mean very much to me. 00:09:33.839 --> 00:09:36.039 But if you're a second language speaker of English. 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:39.079 And again, we're moving further and further away 00:09:39.079 --> 00:09:41.059 from the idea of spending some time on it. 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:43.619 Also then, what else are the features? 00:09:43.859 --> 00:09:48.039 Well, the teachers will have received specialised training, 00:09:48.699 --> 00:09:51.779 either pre-service or in-service training. 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:56.839 There will be postgraduate opportunities for them in the area of EAL. 00:09:57.379 --> 00:09:58.559 We have got rid of this. 00:09:59.099 --> 00:10:01.699 We've dismantled our PGCE systems. 00:10:01.859 --> 00:10:03.259 I'm one of the last graduates. 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:04.259 Look at my hair. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:06.859 I'm one of the last graduates who got a PGCE 00:10:06.859 --> 00:10:08.599 in the teaching of English as a second language, 00:10:08.599 --> 00:10:10.099 and that was in 1983. 00:10:10.099 --> 00:10:12.099 We are dying fast. 00:10:12.099 --> 00:10:14.099 There are some efforts to bring some of this back in 00:10:14.099 --> 00:10:28.635 at a postgraduate level There are some interesting noises being made but there is no real progress on this And of course we seen with the budget cuts taking place this is under real threat now because the specialised teachers are rapidly disappearing from our schools leaving us 00:10:28.635 --> 00:10:31.195 with an under-professionalised staffing in that. 00:10:32.015 --> 00:10:37.755 And the opportunities for EAL support teachers to work with mainstream colleagues are also 00:10:37.755 --> 00:10:40.175 diminishing because they're not there anymore. 00:10:40.355 --> 00:10:43.255 Quite simply, very hard to collaborate with someone if they've been sacked. 00:10:43.255 --> 00:10:50.255 so again on those two points we're not doing terribly well so one minute well what doesn't 00:10:50.255 --> 00:10:55.235 work well basically let me tell you what doesn't work is that would be what we're doing uh it's 00:10:55.235 --> 00:10:59.095 things that we because we're not doing any of the above so i'm afraid that's the case so what should 00:10:59.095 --> 00:11:05.255 we do we have this one minute well we need to develop a framework uh that has formative assessment 00:11:05.255 --> 00:11:11.935 at its heart for eal learners we have models for this from the australians uh with the nllia uh 00:11:11.935 --> 00:11:16.355 grand scales. We need to have this, we need to make it our own, but we need something that has 00:11:16.355 --> 00:11:22.095 a specific EAL framework that's there, and that is formative, that is teacher assessed, because it 00:11:22.095 --> 00:11:26.135 has to be done in the context of that. It needs to have a curriculum that is linguistically 00:11:26.135 --> 00:11:32.515 principled. We need to understand the knowledge and the language that's there, as was being said 00:11:32.515 --> 00:11:37.235 earlier on this morning within Parkview, their attempt to integrate these two things. We need to 00:11:37.235 --> 00:11:41.375 To re-professionalize our teachers and our teaching assistants, 00:11:41.375 --> 00:11:45.875 we need to have a PGCE, we need to have CPD and ongoing opportunities 00:11:45.875 --> 00:11:48.115 for people to learn the skills around language. 00:11:48.217 --> 00:11:50.837 They don't happen by accident. You need to learn them. 00:11:51.257 --> 00:11:53.917 And finally, we need to acknowledge, as has been said before, 00:11:54.017 --> 00:11:55.937 that bilingualism is normal. 00:11:56.137 --> 00:11:58.297 It's not some perversity that children come in with, 00:11:58.577 --> 00:11:59.977 insisting they've got this second language. 00:12:00.237 --> 00:12:03.497 It's on the increase. It's going to carry on being on the increase. 00:12:03.817 --> 00:12:06.437 Get used to it. It's normal, right? 00:12:06.437 --> 00:12:09.457 When it's fostered properly, it adds value, 00:12:09.737 --> 00:12:11.577 both to the individual and to society. 00:12:12.177 --> 00:12:15.897 Our most able achievers are Chinese and Indian students. 00:12:16.317 --> 00:12:17.617 This is our economic future. 00:12:17.617 --> 00:12:19.917 what are we doing to support their bilingualism 00:12:19.917 --> 00:12:22.617 they typically outperform the most able white students 00:12:22.617 --> 00:12:25.157 and it needs to be foregrounded 00:12:25.157 --> 00:12:27.737 the bilingualism needs to be foregrounded in our schools 00:12:27.737 --> 00:12:29.477 not pushed into some corner 00:12:29.477 --> 00:12:32.057 and hidden away as if it were a dirty secret 00:12:32.057 --> 00:12:32.937 that we're ashamed of 00:12:32.937 --> 00:12:35.357 it needs to become the norm for our schools 00:12:35.357 --> 00:12:36.937 that we all speak more than one language 00:12:36.937 --> 00:12:37.817 and that's it 00:12:37.817 --> 00:12:40.697 thank you very much Frank 00:12:40.697 --> 00:12:47.377 and now I'd like to introduce my old friend Pete Fun 00:12:47.377 --> 00:12:53.477 Alamat, who teaches multicultural studies at the University of Ghent in Belgium. He's 00:12:53.477 --> 00:12:58.337 the director of the Centre for Diversity and Learning at the same university, and is a 00:12:58.337 --> 00:13:04.097 long-standing colleague of ours in the Association of Language Testers in Europe, ALTE, where 00:13:04.097 --> 00:13:08.197 he plays a leading role in the discussion of language for migration and integration. 00:13:08.977 --> 00:13:21.592 He also has a great deal of experience in the field of supporting the integration of learners in Dutch environments So Pete your five minutes starting now Thank you very much 00:13:21.852 --> 00:13:24.872 First of all, I'd like to thank Cambridge Assessment for having invited me 00:13:24.872 --> 00:13:29.252 and to share some of the ideas that we're working on, mainly in Flanders. 00:13:29.332 --> 00:13:31.992 But at the same time, I'd like to apologize for the fact that 00:13:31.992 --> 00:13:34.892 I will not be able to focus on the specific British context 00:13:34.892 --> 00:13:40.492 because I'm not really familiar with it, nor with the issues concerning curricula. 00:13:40.492 --> 00:13:49.712 So when I speak about we, I'm not referring to you as UK teachers, but I'm referring to the Flemish context. 00:13:50.752 --> 00:14:00.792 First thing I'd like to address is, and I think this is, in my view, fundamental in what we do in education, the way we look at teaching, the way we look at learning. 00:14:01.132 --> 00:14:05.692 Our fundamental thinking on diversity denies diversity as a starting point. 00:14:05.692 --> 00:14:11.292 Rather, it starts from a binary way of thinking in which one part of the binary is considered 00:14:11.292 --> 00:14:19.292 as legitimate, the legitimate norm, the non-negotiable norm, and the other as the deviant or the deficient 00:14:19.292 --> 00:14:20.292 one. 00:14:20.292 --> 00:14:23.992 So a socially constructed hierarchical relationship. 00:14:23.992 --> 00:14:29.092 And if I have time, I'd like to focus that on the basis of that statement on three issues. 00:14:29.092 --> 00:14:34.092 One, on language and language education, on plurilingual repertoires, and at the end, 00:14:34.092 --> 00:14:35.092 on assessment. 00:14:35.092 --> 00:14:39.332 But referring to what you said, Frank, with the PISA data, 00:14:39.332 --> 00:14:50.708 for those who seen the Belgian data we were I think ranked sixth or something like that Let me be open on Belgium Belgium scores very well on PISA But if we look at the low achievers and the high achievers 00:14:50.948 --> 00:14:53.008 when I only look at the Flemish data, 00:14:53.368 --> 00:14:56.108 the gap between the low achievers and the high achievers 00:14:56.108 --> 00:15:00.528 is the largest, the largest of all regions our countries involved. 00:15:00.988 --> 00:15:03.468 So we always have to look at the possible gap 00:15:03.468 --> 00:15:05.048 between low achievers and high achievers. 00:15:05.368 --> 00:15:07.508 And that brings me to this first point. 00:15:07.568 --> 00:15:09.088 What do we see in Flemish schools? 00:15:09.088 --> 00:15:16.308 The teaching of, in this case, Dutch as an additional language is seen as a language deficit. 00:15:16.688 --> 00:15:22.368 Children have a deficit, and that's why most of the practice is pull-out classes. 00:15:22.508 --> 00:15:32.008 Now, we know that pull-out classes, on the basis of research, pull-out classes have no effect on language learning as such. 00:15:32.008 --> 00:15:42.028 the consequence of looking at making that distinction between the normal child who is monolingual 00:15:42.028 --> 00:15:45.848 and then children who speak another language from a deficiency perspective 00:15:45.848 --> 00:15:50.148 is that we often observe these children as being poor, being weak 00:15:50.148 --> 00:15:57.988 and this impacts implicitly, this and unconsciously, this impacts our teacher behavior. 00:15:58.248 --> 00:16:01.708 Just to give you one example of a PhD student who did a research 00:16:01.708 --> 00:16:04.708 and I'll make immediately switch to this one, 00:16:04.708 --> 00:16:08.708 who did a study on interaction patterns 00:16:09.508 --> 00:16:18.883 in primary education She observed lessons of 100 minutes teachers who were very much devoted to multiculturalism multilingualism etc 00:16:19.523 --> 00:16:22.023 But what she saw was, and one of the things she did 00:16:22.023 --> 00:16:26.203 was she ticked after the names of the different children, 00:16:26.203 --> 00:16:29.023 she ticked the frequency of interaction 00:16:29.023 --> 00:16:30.623 between the teacher and the children. 00:16:31.123 --> 00:16:36.023 Some of the children participated more than 100 times 00:16:36.023 --> 00:16:37.723 in the interaction in these 100 minutes. 00:16:37.723 --> 00:16:39.463 Other children, nil. 00:16:39.863 --> 00:16:40.303 Nil. 00:16:40.803 --> 00:16:42.683 These children don't learn. 00:16:42.963 --> 00:16:43.783 They don't learn. 00:16:43.803 --> 00:16:44.903 They don't learn a language. 00:16:45.283 --> 00:16:46.983 They don't learn the subject or whatsoever. 00:16:47.603 --> 00:16:53.843 The teachers were not aware of the fact that they gave more turns to some children than to others. 00:16:54.143 --> 00:16:57.063 And I think this is a very important point to take into account. 00:16:57.323 --> 00:17:02.723 And it goes back to a large extent to the way we perceive, to the way we see these children, 00:17:02.843 --> 00:17:06.483 whether they come in as being poor, weak, having a deficiency. 00:17:06.483 --> 00:17:12.843 And I think this is a shift in our thinking, in our attitude as schools and as teachers 00:17:12.843 --> 00:17:14.383 that have to be taken into account. 00:17:15.063 --> 00:17:20.923 We know that socioeconomic background is a key feature when it comes to academic achievement. 00:17:21.183 --> 00:17:27.423 We've been able to have two kind of intermediate variables. 00:17:27.743 --> 00:17:31.763 And what we see is that the impact of the socioeconomic composition, 00:17:31.763 --> 00:17:33.763 and here, there, I would like to support... 00:17:34.603 --> 00:17:36.283 Where is she? 00:17:36.483 --> 00:17:42.223 the research that Sally had, yeah, what we see is that 00:17:42.325 --> 00:17:48.385 is that when the teachability culture is low in schools, it impacts the futility and the sense of 00:17:48.385 --> 00:17:55.025 futility of children, and that impacts their academic achievement. So we definitely can make 00:17:55.025 --> 00:18:00.985 a change as a school. Plurilingualism, what do we observe? And again, here I'm speaking about the 00:18:00.985 --> 00:18:07.185 Flemish context. Just to give you a couple of examples of how we in Flanders deal with 00:18:07.185 --> 00:18:09.285 pluralism. In the majority of the 00:18:09.285 --> 00:18:11.025 Flemish schools, in the school 00:18:11.025 --> 00:18:13.165 regulations, it is said 00:18:13.165 --> 00:18:15.385 that the only language which is allowed to be used 00:18:15.385 --> 00:18:16.865 in the school is standard Dutch. 00:18:17.505 --> 00:18:19.265 There are practices where children are 00:18:19.265 --> 00:18:21.225 punished when they speak another language 00:18:21.225 --> 00:18:23.045 in the corridors or in the playground. 00:18:23.445 --> 00:18:25.385 There is even one example of a school 00:18:25.385 --> 00:18:27.265 I know of where at the end of the 00:18:27.265 --> 00:18:29.345 school day, one of the 00:18:29.345 --> 00:18:31.185 teachers goes at the 00:18:31.185 --> 00:18:33.205 school gate where the parents are waiting with 00:18:33.205 --> 00:18:34.525 a green and a red glove on. 00:18:35.145 --> 00:18:37.105 When the parents speak Dutch, 00:18:37.185 --> 00:18:42.925 The migrants' parents, one minute, speak Dutch to each other, the green glove goes like that. 00:18:42.985 --> 00:18:45.425 When they speak their mother tongue, the red glove goes like that. 00:18:46.245 --> 00:18:47.245 This is the reality. 00:18:47.385 --> 00:18:49.045 So I fully support what you said. 00:18:49.745 --> 00:18:53.265 What I think is, and I'm not talking about bilingual education. 00:18:53.385 --> 00:18:57.325 I'm not talking about the teaching of the mother tongues of migrant children. 00:18:57.325 --> 00:19:01.185 Because we have to be aware of the fact that we are talking about super diverse contexts. 00:19:01.645 --> 00:19:03.625 And it has been said before the break. 00:19:03.625 --> 00:19:15.841 In some cases this is also the case in Flanders where teachers are confronted with 15 20 different languages But what we can do and this is what we are now experimenting in some schools in the city of Ghent 00:19:16.241 --> 00:19:23.581 we are using the plurilingual, in mainstream classes, using the plurilingual repertoires as didactical capital for learning. 00:19:23.921 --> 00:19:30.661 So not allowing the use of the language, but really promoting it, exploiting it in the learning processes, 00:19:30.961 --> 00:19:33.121 seems to be very powerful. 00:19:33.461 --> 00:19:34.981 And then testing. 00:19:35.861 --> 00:19:40.721 Flanders doesn't have a traditional centralized testing, 00:19:40.861 --> 00:19:43.001 which you have more in the UK, 00:19:43.281 --> 00:19:46.421 but we have to be aware of the fact that tests are, 00:19:46.701 --> 00:19:49.521 although they strive for objectivity, they are never objective. 00:19:50.021 --> 00:19:51.920 It are people who have developed these tests, 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:56.561 and we have to be aware of the fact that reference frames 00:19:56.561 --> 00:19:59.281 of those people who developed these tests 00:19:59.281 --> 00:20:01.281 are always involved in the development. 00:20:01.881 --> 00:20:05.581 So what I would like to advocate for, 00:20:05.581 --> 00:20:09.321 and this has been said a couple of times before the break as well, 00:20:09.521 --> 00:20:13.461 we have to broaden our assessment procedures in the schools, 00:20:13.781 --> 00:20:18.481 not only at the end of a process we should assess, 00:20:18.761 --> 00:20:21.741 but also during the process, 00:20:21.821 --> 00:20:24.361 what children can do instead of what they can't. 00:20:24.620 --> 00:20:26.741 We have to map their development. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.101 We have to capture their individual learning paces 00:20:30.101 --> 00:20:34.001 because we tend to forget that language learning processes 00:20:34.001 --> 00:20:46.096 are whimsical and are individually different And I think this is important to take into account And we have to try to integrate our assessment procedures in the learning and the teaching 00:20:46.096 --> 00:20:51.996 processes and on top of that students who are actively involved has to be much more actively 00:20:51.996 --> 00:20:58.156 involved in the development and the performance of the tests. And I'll stop here. Thank you. 00:20:58.156 --> 00:21:02.916 Thank you very much. 00:21:03.796 --> 00:21:08.396 Now to our third speaker, Tim Chadwick, 00:21:08.736 --> 00:21:15.036 who has worked in education in a wide variety of countries and contexts over the last 18 years, 00:21:15.516 --> 00:21:18.356 including as a high school teacher in Bulgaria. 00:21:19.276 --> 00:21:23.936 He was a senior trainer and manager on a large education project in the Middle East, 00:21:23.936 --> 00:21:30.936 where almost overnight the language of delivery for state school maths and science changed from Arabic to English. 00:21:31.596 --> 00:21:36.596 More recently he was commissioned by the University of Cambridge International Examinations 00:21:36.596 --> 00:21:39.916 in cooperation with Cambridge University Press 00:21:39.916 --> 00:21:47.236 to write a practical guide for schools on how to support both content and language learning in the classroom. 00:21:48.276 --> 00:21:49.636 So Tim, over to you for your... 00:21:49.636 --> 00:21:50.296 And I'm okay here? 00:21:50.536 --> 00:21:51.736 I can be heard from you? 00:21:51.736 --> 00:21:52.616 Okay, thank you. 00:21:52.616 --> 00:22:00.616 Being last, I find that most people have stolen my ideas, so this will seem like maybe a rehash of some of what you've heard. 00:22:01.096 --> 00:22:16.792 Yes the vast majority of my experience in this field comes from overseas I spent 18 years working outside the UK What I will talk about is the role of the subject teacher in supporting language not only the EAL focus And my focus 00:22:16.792 --> 00:22:23.312 comes from secondary. We've seen clear examples of excellent EAL support for children with 00:22:23.312 --> 00:22:28.312 very different language needs. I live in southwest London and did some research into schools 00:22:28.312 --> 00:22:32.912 there. There are EAL classes that fully support the curriculum throughout the rest of the school. 00:22:33.552 --> 00:22:37.112 the employment of language assistants that have some first language of many of the students. 00:22:37.352 --> 00:22:40.332 One school had Polish, Arabic, Spanish speaking assistants, for example. 00:22:40.872 --> 00:22:44.252 And some schools also offer language classes to parents to help them. 00:22:44.352 --> 00:22:46.792 I think Lee mentioned something like that earlier as well, 00:22:46.852 --> 00:22:49.292 to help them better engage with the school life of their child. 00:22:50.272 --> 00:22:52.512 A problem seems to arise, however, 00:22:52.512 --> 00:22:56.372 and this is backed up by a report that I can give you a quote for later, 00:22:56.872 --> 00:23:01.392 a problem arises when students are judged to be advanced in English, 00:23:01.392 --> 00:23:07.272 and EAL support is either not provided in the case of new arrivals to the school 00:23:07.272 --> 00:23:13.652 or removed in the case of students who are seen to have progressed enough because of EAL support. 00:23:14.352 --> 00:23:16.712 Firstly, here we have an issue of assessment. 00:23:17.012 --> 00:23:18.052 What is enough? 00:23:18.352 --> 00:23:20.492 Assessment is the topic of a whole other debate. 00:23:21.132 --> 00:23:26.272 And so all I would like to say is that language support should not be removed at any stage of a child's education, 00:23:26.272 --> 00:23:29.892 no matter if English is their first language or an additional language, 00:23:29.892 --> 00:23:33.012 and that would go right through university. 00:23:33.012 --> 00:23:34.092 We do have the slide. 00:23:34.092 --> 00:23:36.332 So you've kind of seen this before. 00:23:36.433 --> 00:23:39.233 On this diagram, you can see that language can be usefully divided. 00:23:39.593 --> 00:23:42.413 I have it in three types. Jim Cummings has it as two. 00:23:42.753 --> 00:23:44.653 Bix is the social language of the child. 00:23:44.953 --> 00:23:47.793 We have classroom language, the kind of routines of the teacher. 00:23:48.233 --> 00:23:50.593 And we have the CLIL, which is the academic language. 00:23:51.093 --> 00:23:55.833 Children will pick up their social language very quickly, especially in the age of Facebook. 00:23:56.593 --> 00:24:00.233 Classroom language, such as putting students into groups, taking the register and so on, 00:24:00.273 --> 00:24:02.513 is so repetitive that it's soon acquired. 00:24:02.513 --> 00:24:05.913 The academic language, however, as we've heard from other speakers today, 00:24:05.913 --> 00:24:08.173 is very much another matter completely. 00:24:08.633 --> 00:24:11.953 This is language that we expect students to engage with 00:24:11.953 --> 00:24:13.613 and use to demonstrate understanding, 00:24:13.993 --> 00:24:17.053 but they will also come across this language only really at school. 00:24:17.053 --> 00:24:20.693 And so who will provide this language in a meaningful way? 00:24:22.113 --> 00:24:25.573 It's worth noting that typically a student's level of BICS will be high 00:24:25.573 --> 00:24:29.333 in comparison to their level of CELP, the social, in comparison to the academic. 00:24:29.873 --> 00:24:31.953 If we go back to the question what is enough, 00:24:32.153 --> 00:24:34.753 there is the inherent risk that if a child is assessed 00:24:34.753 --> 00:24:39.273 and deemed to be advanced when tested through BICS rather than through CELP. 00:24:39.593 --> 00:24:43.113 It may be inappropriate to withdraw explicit EAL support. 00:24:43.893 --> 00:24:47.333 We have all met children who seem to be extremely fluent 00:24:47.333 --> 00:24:50.673 when talking to us about the weekend, their hobbies and so on, 00:24:50.673 --> 00:24:55.193 and then we take in that essay and it seems like the work of another individual. 00:24:55.933 --> 00:24:59.233 We may then assume the child to be lazy or to let aptitude, 00:24:59.593 --> 00:25:10.589 but it also possible that they have received inadequate support with academic language and I talking about in the subject classroom I was unfortunate enough to attend a terrible high school 00:25:10.989 --> 00:25:13.729 It has since been knocked down and has become a housing estate. 00:25:14.049 --> 00:25:16.109 I have not met anybody who regrets this. 00:25:16.889 --> 00:25:19.929 I am probably alone. I'm next to a doctor and a professor. 00:25:20.129 --> 00:25:23.269 I'm probably alone in that I hold a CSE grade 3 in chemistry. 00:25:23.709 --> 00:25:24.909 This is not a good result. 00:25:25.809 --> 00:25:30.189 I was not a lazy child, and I believe I had enough intelligence to pass at O level, 00:25:30.449 --> 00:25:32.589 but chemistry was a foreign language to me. 00:25:33.309 --> 00:25:37.689 From all the work I have done in this field, I can only conclude that this was not my fault at all, 00:25:37.689 --> 00:25:42.709 and that all the responsibility for my failure really did boil down to Mr Mellor, my teacher. 00:25:43.549 --> 00:25:46.989 He in no way supported us, and this is a serious point, 00:25:47.149 --> 00:25:50.349 he in no way supported us as children with the language of chemistry. 00:25:51.109 --> 00:25:53.629 Obviously, chemistry involves very specialised language, 00:25:53.929 --> 00:25:57.269 and so where else were we supposed to get this language from, if not from him? 00:25:57.649 --> 00:26:00.089 We had no language two speakers in our class, by the way. 00:26:00.929 --> 00:26:03.929 But Mr Mello was far from alone and remains far from alone. 00:26:04.369 --> 00:26:08.509 Many subject teachers are not aware of how to support their students with language 00:26:08.509 --> 00:26:13.589 and how to scaffold tasks within their lessons regarding both procedure and language. 00:26:14.129 --> 00:26:17.849 Many have received too little training or no training in this area. 00:26:17.849 --> 00:26:24.129 I myself went through school at a time where English grammar wasn't taught and there was certainly no Latin in Macclesfield. 00:26:24.989 --> 00:26:39.084 Yet in French class we were supposed to know what our teacher meant when they spoke about the infinitive or subjunctive I sure I not alone in experiencing this and that in fact there is a whole generation of practicing teachers including subject teachers I mean more specifically 00:26:39.084 --> 00:26:43.944 subject teachers, excuse me, who do not know necessarily a great deal about the English language 00:26:43.944 --> 00:26:50.284 and I'm sure there are some poor French speakers amongst us too. There is great variation then in 00:26:50.284 --> 00:26:56.124 how well prepared subject teachers are to support their students with academic language and so 00:26:56.124 --> 00:27:02.084 clearly, as Dr. Frank said, this becomes an issue of training. Content teachers need to 00:27:02.084 --> 00:27:05.644 be aware, for example, of the four skills of language and the demands these place on 00:27:05.644 --> 00:27:09.504 students. Those skills are the productive skills of writing and speaking, the receptive 00:27:09.504 --> 00:27:13.544 skills of listening and reading. Right now, I am speaking. I hope that some of you are 00:27:13.544 --> 00:27:18.144 listening, but this is actually bad teaching practice. I am not checking your understanding. 00:27:18.384 --> 00:27:24.264 There are no true-false questions. There are no concept questions. And all these techniques 00:27:24.264 --> 00:27:25.924 we no count as language support. 00:27:26.404 --> 00:27:28.064 If we go back to my chemistry, 00:27:28.664 --> 00:27:31.464 let's imagine that we want our students to conduct an experiment 00:27:31.464 --> 00:27:35.024 and provide us with a detailed laboratory report at the end. 00:27:35.564 --> 00:27:37.904 The language demands on the students will be speaking and writing. 00:27:38.424 --> 00:27:39.904 In this case, in my opinion, 00:27:40.364 --> 00:27:42.644 it will be good practice to provide the students with a handout 00:27:42.644 --> 00:27:44.364 that contains sentence stems. 00:27:44.364 --> 00:27:46.464 Now, I wonder if Lee agrees with me here. 00:27:46.564 --> 00:27:47.944 We might talk about that. 00:27:48.584 --> 00:27:51.664 So, for example, if we want the students to make a hypothesis 00:27:51.664 --> 00:27:54.804 or a prediction before the experiment starts, 00:27:54.804 --> 00:28:09.480 then within the handout would be some language In this case it would be a first conditional It doesn matter if we don know what a first conditional is but it would be we think that if we add X to Y Z will occur Supporting students in this way helps students who are weaker at language 00:28:09.820 --> 00:28:13.100 It supports the teacher's instructions in terms of what they want the students to do. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:14.960 It keeps students on task. 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:17.400 It makes them feel like real investigative scientists. 00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:19.760 It means they leave the room with something. 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:23.400 It's surprising how often students leave classrooms actually with nothing with them. 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:27.380 this is one very simple example of academic language support 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:29.160 and I do not have time for more 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.780 and I'm speaking as quickly as I can 00:28:30.780 --> 00:28:34.060 many content teachers need support 00:28:34.060 --> 00:28:36.280 in giving explicit language support in their lessons 00:28:36.280 --> 00:28:38.900 to both native and non-native speakers of English 00:28:38.900 --> 00:28:40.860 I don't see a distinction necessarily 00:28:40.860 --> 00:28:42.740 such as pre-teaching vocabulary 00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:43.960 in designing handouts 00:28:43.960 --> 00:28:45.200 in helping students speak 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:47.720 and generally engage more effectively with the content 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:50.660 they also need support in helping their students demonstrate 00:28:50.660 --> 00:28:53.100 their understanding of the content. 00:28:53.820 --> 00:28:56.180 So where can this support come from? 00:28:56.500 --> 00:28:57.640 I mentioned the book already. 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:03.020 But I also personally believe, and I speak only for myself here, 00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:06.200 but I think this echoes what Frank says, you can correct me, 00:29:06.540 --> 00:29:09.060 that PGCEs, the GTT, the BED, 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:13.460 well, I think it should contain something along the lines of a CELTA course, 00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:15.400 the kind of course that Cambridge E-Cell offer, 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.860 a Certificate in Teaching English to Adults 00:29:17.860 --> 00:29:20.420 to see how English is taught as a second language. 00:29:20.660 --> 00:29:25.040 There's also a CELT-YL course, which is specifically for young learners. 00:29:25.040 --> 00:29:30.440 This provides a window on how English is taught as a second language outside the UK, and I 00:29:30.542 --> 00:29:34.062 has serious ramifications for how we deal with language here within the UK. 00:29:34.702 --> 00:29:36.462 There are so many more issues to raise. 00:29:36.582 --> 00:29:38.222 I haven't touched on the curriculum, really. 00:29:38.562 --> 00:29:42.062 What is geography to a child from Sudan compared to a child born here? 00:29:42.402 --> 00:29:45.382 What is the story of Gordon of Khartoum to the same child? 00:29:45.642 --> 00:29:47.922 How accessible is our curriculum, really? 00:29:48.642 --> 00:29:54.322 How is it that in some schools, EAL-assisted children outperform students for whom English is a first language? 00:29:54.902 --> 00:29:57.342 Are students who migrate to this country more driven to succeed? 00:29:57.462 --> 00:29:59.022 That's a point that's been made already. 00:29:59.022 --> 00:30:10.742 Whatever the answers to the issues that I've raised, language, particularly academic language, is the core competency, in my opinion, for everything our students do. 00:30:11.022 --> 00:30:11.442 Thank you. 00:30:13.382 --> 00:30:20.022 Thank you very much to our speakers for packaging their messages so tightly. 00:30:20.602 --> 00:30:22.122 A little bit too tightly, perhaps. 00:30:22.682 --> 00:30:23.602 It was actually quick. 00:30:23.602 --> 00:30:29.222 It was very quick, but I think you did very well, all of you, to keep within your time. 00:30:29.682 --> 00:30:31.262 Bennett, can I take a steer from you? 00:30:31.522 --> 00:30:32.842 We are running a bit late. 00:30:33.502 --> 00:30:34.742 How do you want to handle that? 00:30:36.422 --> 00:30:42.902 Is there anybody in the audience that would just like anybody on the platform to unpack anything they've just said? 00:30:44.562 --> 00:30:47.582 It's sort of further and better in particular as well as the debate. 00:30:47.582 --> 00:31:04.357 So what we saying we could have two or three minutes for clarification questions before we move on and in that case we can then open up the debate which will be chaired by Bennett So does anyone have any questions on clarification for the three speakers 00:31:04.957 --> 00:31:08.397 Actually, I have a question. That's unusual. 00:31:08.697 --> 00:31:13.597 But Lee, you gave very good examples of how you had different types of language, 00:31:14.137 --> 00:31:18.217 which I would call BICS language, and you said where you wanted to get your students to. 00:31:18.917 --> 00:31:24.017 What kind of strategies do you use to help your students move from one to the other? 00:31:24.077 --> 00:31:27.457 Because I think our fields and what I'm saying is very closely linked to that. 00:31:27.657 --> 00:31:28.197 Yeah, absolutely. 00:31:28.917 --> 00:31:31.757 It's using that teaching and learning cycle that we talked about. 00:31:32.097 --> 00:31:35.957 So the first aspect is the building of the field, 00:31:36.057 --> 00:31:38.517 and it's something that the professor talked about. 00:31:38.897 --> 00:31:44.077 Often exams will be written in a kind of culturally specific context. 00:31:45.437 --> 00:31:48.017 So I'm teaching my bottom set year sevens. 00:31:48.037 --> 00:31:50.017 We've all got reading ages of about seven or eight at the moment 00:31:50.017 --> 00:31:53.177 about why Henry established the Church of England. 00:31:54.077 --> 00:31:55.797 So we've done a lot of work. 00:31:56.757 --> 00:32:00.717 They've hot-seated me as Henry and building the field 00:32:00.717 --> 00:32:02.997 and just getting them to know the story of what happened. 00:32:03.517 --> 00:32:07.417 And now we're trying to move into how do we actually write about this in an academic way 00:32:07.417 --> 00:32:12.377 and how do they produce a factorial explanation of the three reasons that drove Henry to do that. 00:32:12.377 --> 00:32:15.457 So we're starting with the modelling and deconstruction. 00:32:15.657 --> 00:32:20.897 So the colleague who's working with me, we will write a model of a paragraph of how they do that. 00:32:21.337 --> 00:32:22.517 We'll pull that apart. 00:32:22.517 --> 00:32:35.573 We show them the language features We look at how that constructed Then we work with the students to jointly construct it So we will sort of give them you know opportunities to do that 00:32:35.693 --> 00:32:36.993 We'll talk to them about it. 00:32:37.053 --> 00:32:39.893 And then the third stage is that we want them to do that independently, 00:32:40.333 --> 00:32:41.613 want them to independently construct it. 00:32:41.673 --> 00:32:45.293 And that's, I guess, what the reference I was making to things like sentence stems 00:32:45.293 --> 00:32:49.893 and word banks is that if students are reliant on those, 00:32:49.893 --> 00:32:52.493 then they stay in that dependent mode. 00:32:52.613 --> 00:32:58.673 But what we need to do is lead them to being able to reproduce those things independently, 00:32:59.073 --> 00:33:02.473 especially as they're going to be tested in an exam where no one else can help them. 00:33:02.613 --> 00:33:07.773 So it's using that cycle of leading them to independence is the way that we're trying to do it. 00:33:08.033 --> 00:33:08.573 Thank you. 00:33:08.693 --> 00:33:10.233 We have a couple of questions. 00:33:10.453 --> 00:33:12.053 It's not a question, it's a previous comment. 00:33:12.053 --> 00:33:17.393 I was privileged last Friday in Birmingham to be in the lesson where Lee and the other teacher. 00:33:18.333 --> 00:33:20.913 What I would regard as what Frank talked about earlier, 00:33:20.913 --> 00:33:23.933 with somebody who did the PGCE as an EAL teacher, 00:33:24.053 --> 00:33:26.093 so was an expert, what I regard as an expert. 00:33:26.753 --> 00:33:30.373 So moving students from this low ability, 7-5 set, 00:33:30.493 --> 00:33:32.973 from witnessing it in partnership teaching, 00:33:33.193 --> 00:33:36.833 from Henry wanted to do things, so a focus on the doing, 00:33:37.833 --> 00:33:40.573 to a language where they were talking at the end of the lesson 00:33:40.573 --> 00:33:44.453 about Henry's desire for divorce, money and power, 00:33:44.453 --> 00:33:50.013 a nominalisation built into an extended nominal group like that. 00:33:50.013 --> 00:34:01.608 at the beginning of the clause So there wasn talk about clause in there so the issue of the metalinguistic awareness is critical but that where the students were moving and it was a real privilege to see that lesson 00:34:02.448 --> 00:34:02.768 Thank you. 00:34:03.468 --> 00:34:04.448 Can we take one more? 00:34:04.888 --> 00:34:05.968 I think you had your hand up. 00:34:08.688 --> 00:34:09.928 It's connected to the same thing. 00:34:10.588 --> 00:34:11.908 I mean, it's been touched on a few times, 00:34:11.948 --> 00:34:14.628 but the focus on oracy and collaboration and construction, 00:34:14.888 --> 00:34:16.888 because clearly that's where the STEMS thing, I think, 00:34:16.908 --> 00:34:18.248 is so different to what we had for a while, 00:34:18.248 --> 00:34:22.688 which is worksheets and frameworks that didn't have any space for the children to have any 00:34:22.688 --> 00:34:27.028 ownership or development and they got trapped in those. I think stems, particularly if they're used 00:34:27.028 --> 00:34:33.388 orally, then readily become something that can be put onto paper and that's where the independence 00:34:33.388 --> 00:34:37.308 comes and that's a very big deal in the curriculum I think because we're supposed to be getting a big 00:34:37.308 --> 00:34:43.108 focus on RSC and we've been supposed to be getting RSC and talk and really important for years and 00:34:43.108 --> 00:34:46.768 years and years but when it comes down to assessment it's always the Cinderella in the corner 00:34:46.768 --> 00:34:49.748 and that to me is crucial for all learners 00:34:49.748 --> 00:34:50.788 but particularly learners. 00:34:51.828 --> 00:34:54.668 Just one, could you make it brief? 00:34:55.208 --> 00:34:57.868 Yes, you could take it into the next session if you wanted to. 00:34:57.908 --> 00:35:00.728 I was interested in hearing a little bit more about Timothy's theory 00:35:00.728 --> 00:35:05.668 about some of the methodologies like SELTS-YL or CLIL 00:35:05.668 --> 00:35:07.788 and whether these can be used in this sector 00:35:07.788 --> 00:35:10.908 which if I understood you correctly was what you were saying. 00:35:11.308 --> 00:35:13.608 Maybe you can take it into the next session. 00:35:13.828 --> 00:35:15.128 That was a question about CLIL. 00:35:15.128 --> 00:35:17.368 you may all know it 00:35:17.368 --> 00:35:19.628 it's a content and language integrated learning 00:35:19.628 --> 00:35:21.368 also known as Emile 00:35:21.368 --> 00:35:22.188 in French